September has been a very dry month and has ended with exceptionally warm temperature. a real Indian summer. Although the garden is dry at first glance luckily because we have had the odd day of rain and there is frequently a heavy dew in the morning the plants are looking quite good.
Starting with the smallest area of this monthly post – the hardy succulent trough has really filled out. When I planted it up at the beginning of the year it looked so empty but now it seems I under estimated how much and how quickly the plants would grow and no doubt I will have to edit it in the not too distant future.
The staging area got a bit of a tidy up. I mentioned a few weeks back that I was planting up my various perennial alpines into bigger pots and you can see the results here. You can also see the huge flower on the Aeonium tabuliforme which is quite wonderful; sadly the plant will die when the flower finishes.
The Patio Border is looking a lot better since I moved the Edgeworthia along from the end on the right – it seems more balanced out. The Kirengeshoma palamata is now beginning to go over but it has looked wonderful for about a month now. The border will now start to fade but come Spring it should have lots of spring bulbs appearing.
On the other side of the path is the Big Border which I have added a number of asters too over the last month. I haven’t felt the border was right yet and I have decided that the two shrubs in it are just too large for the space and are dominating the planting. When I visited Old Court Nursery a few
weeks back I was very taken with the borders and they didn’t have any shrubs in. I have been following a principle of having a range of plants e.g. shrubs, perennials, bulbs in a border to add interest but I think that this border can do well without the shrubs. There is plenty of interest elsewhere in the garden in the spring and winter that the border doesn’t need to be interesting all the time. I want to improve my original plan to have the focus of the border on asters with some other late summer perennials. The asters are a little thin at the moment so making much of an impact but I think given another season they should start to look very good.
The new seating area and Hardy Exotic Border is great and has exceeded my expectations particularly as they were only created earlier this year. It will be interesting to see how the plants in the border come through the winter and how much they fill out given another year’s growth.
The original Woodland Border is looking a little faded now with plants beginning to fade for Autumn. However it looks so much better than last year and I am glad I added plants at the back to add height. I still need to edit the front and middle of the border now I know what is where so plants have the best chance to show of but this will be a job to do over the next month or so and in early spring.
Finally the enigma which is the former Bog Garden and which continues to perplex me. There is something not right with the border and I can’t work out what to do to make it zing. I am sure the penny will drop in the near future but it definitely needs something added or removed – it’s just been dull this year.
So that is my garden at the end of September and with Autumn upon us I am hoping to undertake a number of small projects over the next couple of months to get the garden ready for next year. I find writing this monthly post very helpful as it makes me look critically at the garden and analyze why different areas please or irritate me.
If you would like to join in with the monthly meme you are very welcome to do so. You can use it however you want there are no rules – you can show us around your garden, feature a particular area whatever you fancy. All I ask is that you include a link to this post in your post and you put a link to your post in the comment box below so I can find you.
